Projectiles of this type are intended to disintegrate in flight, or to detonate, and are also called “air bursting munitions”, abbreviated as ABM. Projectiles which detonate in flight have a timed fuse, revolution fuse or proximity fuse. The location or the time of detonation should be selectable, or adjustable. With more recent projectiles the setting of the time of detonation, or the length of the fuse, is no longer manually performed prior to loading, but automatically, either during feeding, or in the cartridge storage, or by an inductive signal transmission at the muzzle of the weapon upon firing. The projectiles have special devices for receiving the signals and, via an energy source, for operating a logical ignition device and for delivering the electrical energy required in the projectile for triggering the detonation.
The demands made on such projectiles are numerous.
For one, the effective mass delivered to the location of the detonation should be as large as possible for obtaining a satisfactory effect, and the projectile pieces being created by the detonation should have the greatest possible velocity. Inter alia, this requires a high drive pressure on the projectile base, which must be made sturdy, a large axial acceleration and a high muzzle velocity, so that the speed of rotation and the acceleration of the rotation are also high. The programmable device with the energy source and the logic module must operate dependably and correctly.
Furthermore, the non-effective mass, part of which are the programmable device, in particular the receiver coil, the energy source and the logic module, must be as small as possible. Therefore the programmable device has delicate and easily damaged elements, which must be well protected so that they can withstand the large forces caused by the acceleration.
Finally, it should be possible to manufacture the projectile efficiently, if possible from units which can be individually manufactured and are produced in parallel and can thereafter be put together in a simple manner. Therefore a modular construction is desired.
So far no projectiles of the type mentioned at the outset are known which meet all these requirements.